Marketing Automotive

Before taking charges of Toyota Motors, Akio Toyoda visited a car dealership in Ann Harbour (Michigan). The grandson of Toyota’s founder was there to inspect the undercarriage of a Tundra pickup truck. Why, you ask? Because the model had been quite a bit troublesome, and subject to recalls.

What Mr Toyoda was practicing was a time-honored tradition in the Toyota Production System, called ‘genchi genbutsu’ translated as ‘go to the spot ‘, or  find out where the trouble is through first-hand observation.”

The lesson to take from this way of working are simple to practice if you agree to stay humble and go to the reality of business.

1. What is the real problem? “Diagnosing [a] problem requires the discipline of looking for the root cause ». You do not know until you take the time to investigate.”
2. How do we fix it? This might be as simple as a process overhaul, or as complicated as a product recall.
3. Who can best execute the fix? Not everyone is a born problem-solver. You need to have people who like asking questions but [also] have the facility to … implement solutions.”

The lesson : Use your downtime these days to root out the causes of any ongoing problems; that way, they’ll be fixed by the time things start to look up.

Source: Inspired and adapted from Harvard Business Publishing